“I’d really like to go to Antartica”

“Don’t be silly. You feel the cold.”

“No, really. I want to see the ice and the blues..and be on the Southern Ocean..”

“Hm.” A snap rattle of the newspaper and a loud silence ended the conversation. But it did mark the beginning – of this journey.

Tonight, we are on the eve of departing for Buenos Aires. We will spend a day and a night there and then fly south to rainy wind swept Ushuaia, the southern most town of South America. The following day we join our ship, RCGS Resolute  and leave the Beagle Channel on the cruise of a life time, to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the Antartica Peninsula. To say I am full of anticipatory butterflies would be an understatement. Have I packed the right stuff? Too much or too little? Will I be able to keep warm? Why on earth are we doing this? I only have to look at an open window and my fingers turn blue.

The truth is I am hooked. For the last ten years I have been devouring books about tales of endurance, mountains and freezing places; all the environments that are inimical to me. I am still immersed in Frank Worsley’s very personal account of Sir Ernest Shackleton  and the legendary rescue of his crew after his ship Endurance was crushed by pack ice. After a few weeks on the ice the twenty eight men were forced to take three life boats and make their way to the wilds of the inhospitable and comfortless Elephant Island. From there Shackleton divided the group, taking five men aboard their largest life boat, the  James Caird for a freezing perilous ride towards South Georgia across the black seas of a nightmare. The privations of starvation, thirst and cold they endured would probably end a modern life quickly, but they survived. A thousand miles later, as they approached South Georgia, and feared they might still be dashed on the rocks, a fluke change in the wind allowed them to effect a safe landing. From that cold and bolder strewn beach, Shackleton, Worsley and Crean left their exhausted ship mates to rest and then trekked over the uncharted mountains inland in order to reach the whaling station and raise a rescue. Three days later, after the most terrifying and life sapping of journeys on foot, when the whaling station finally came into view, they heard voices in the distance. Worsley states it was their first contact with other human beings for two years. The rest you will have to read about, in his book South but the heroism of Shackleton in subsequently saving every single one of his men is the stuff of legends, and a tale of exemplary leadership.

We will not, I hope, be embarking on a such a fraught and dangerous voyage, but none the less be able to see a little of where he went. Penguins, whales, seals and birds will be the moving targets of our lenses, the sea and ice occupying the rest of our attention. We will not be able to upload images or access external websites from the ship, but I will post as and when signal and circumstances permit.

Please come with me, from the safety of your chair.